Journal of Marine Science: Research & Development
Open Access

Research Article

Separate and Joint Effects of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH)and Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB) on Aromatase CYP19A Transcription Level in Atlantic Tomcod (Microgradus tomcod)

Adam Tulu¹, Ali Ishaque^1*, Egbe Egiebor¹, Christopher Chambers² and Rosemary Jagus³

¹Department of Natural Science, University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, Princess Anne, MD 21853, USA

²NOAA-Fisheries, 74 Magruder Rd., Highlands, NJ 07732, USA

³Center of Marine Biotechnology, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute.701 E Pratt st. Baltimore, MD 21202, USA

*Corresponding Author:

Ali Ishaque
Department of Natural Science
University of Maryland, Eastern Shore
Princess Anne, MD 21853, USA
Tel: (410) 651-2200
E-mail: Abishaque@umes.edu Abishaque@umes.edu

Received date: April 29, 2013; Accepted date: July 05, 2014; Published date: July 12, 2014

Citation: Tulu A, Ishaque A, Egiebor E, Chambers C, Jagu R (2014) Separate and Joint Effects of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) and Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB) on Aromatase CYP19A Transcription Level in Atlantic Tomcod (Microgradus tomcod). J Marine Sci Res Dev 4:151. doi:10.4172/2155-9910.1000151

Copyright: © 2014 Tulu A, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Ovarian cytochrome 19A (CYP19A) expression is recognized as a useful biomarker for exposure of fish to environmental contaminants such as PAHs and PCBs. In this study, a laboratory approach using Atlantic tomcod (Microgradus tomcod) from the Hudson River was used to evaluate the additive and interactive effects of a PAH (benzo[a]pyrine) and a PCB mixture (Aroclor 1242) with respect to their effects on various metrics of reproduction. The experimental design was a two-way factorial with each treatment at 0, 0.1 and 1 ppm and replicated three times. Fish embryos were subjected to a short term aqueous exposure (DMSO as vehicle) whereas larvae were exposed via repeated feedings of contaminated prey (Artemia). Quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was used to evaluate the mRNA expression level of the ovarian aromatase CYP19A as a biomarker to assess reproductive stress in Microgadus tomcod. When tested alone, expression of aromatase CYP19A was significantly up regulated at the higher level of PCBs but no effect was observed from benzo-a-pyrene (B[a]P). In the PCB/PAH combined treatment, both low-PCB with both low/high levels of PAH and high-PCB with both low/high levels of PAH treatment groups had no significant effect on aromatase CYP19A transcript levels compared with the control group. Gonadosomatic Index (GSI) of reproductively mature females showed that only the high-PCB treatment group exhibited significant gonadal loss. The results confirm the expectation that transcription of both PCB and PAH responsive genes are upregulated since they both exert their toxic effects through the aryl hydrocarbons receptor (AHR) pathway